Medical procedures, such as imaging procedures, often rely on the use of a media, such as contrast media, flushing media, or other liquid, solid, and/or gas media, that is dispensed and/or injected into the biological structure to be imaged such that the procedure provides more detailed information to a radiologist or other medical personnel responsible for analyzing the procedure results (such as medical imagery). Such medical imaging procedures may include, for instance, angiography, computed tomography (CT), ultrasound and/or NMR/MRI. The term “contrast media”, as employed herein, refers to essentially any suitable type of media, as used in the medical arts, that is injected into an individual and, in the context of a medical procedure such as, for example an imaging procedure (such as MR, angiography, ultrasound or CT), facilitates in highlighting selected areas of the individual's body while the individual is being scanned. In addition, the term “contrast media”, as employed herein, may also refer to other diagnostic or therapeutic agents for injection into individuals. The term “flushing media”, as employed herein, refers to essentially any suitable type of medium, such as a saline solution, that can be used to flush contrast medium, or other types of materials, from the tubing of an infusion system (or any other components thereof) and that is well-suited for flowing through the individual's body so as to serve a useful supplementary purpose such as, for example, keeping his/her veins open in preparation for another infusion of contrast media. Contrast media may be injected into an individual's vasculature prior to a medical procedure (such as, for example, a medical imaging procedure) by a dispensing device including, but not limited to a power injector having an electronic controller.
Some dispensing devices may include electronic controllers capable of collecting and storing information related to the usage and/or function of the dispensing device. For instance, in some cases, the dispensing device may create a data set containing, for instance, information regarding volumes of contrast media dispensed, time and date stamps for particular medical procedures including, but not limited to medical imaging procedures, information related to the dispensing pressure exerted by the dispensing device during a particular dispensing operation (such as, for example, the pressure profile for a powered injection of contrast media) and/or information regarding the usage of sterile disposables (including syringes or other accessories used by the dispensing device).
In addition, in some medical imaging facilities, the dispensing device may be in communication with an extravasation detection accessory (EDA) (such as the E-Z-EM Extravasation Detection Accessory (EDA®)), or other accessory device capable of detecting extravasation events in an individual undergoing a medical imaging procedure. Such accessories may include, but are not limited to, adhesive electronic sensors capable of being adhered to an individual's skin at the contrast media injection site (in procedures using a power injector, for example). The EDA may thus be capable of detecting changes in impedance at the injection site corresponding to an extravasation event (which may include, for instance, cases wherein contrast media is inadvertently released outside the targeted injection area (i.e., outside the vasculature of the individual). EDA devices may include embedded electronic components that may be in communication with the electronic controller of the dispensing device, such that an operator of the dispensing device may choose whether or not to enable the EDA during a given dispensing operation. In addition, the EDA may generate a data set during the course of its operation during a dispensing operation. For instance, an EDA may, in some cases generate a data set that may be stored either in its embedded electronic components, or sent to the electronic controller of the dispensing device for storage along with the dispensing device data. Such EDA data may include but is not limited to, time and date stamps, an indication as to whether or not the EDA was enabled, and indication of whether or not an extravasation event was detected during a given dispensing operation, and an impedance profile (over time) generated by the EDA as it is adhered to an injection site.
Dispensing devices used in medical imaging practices may be syringe-based power injectors (including the E-Z-EM Empower CT® and Empower CTA® power injector systems) that may include one or more syringes (containing pre-loaded amounts of contrast media and/or saline solution). In addition, such systems may be electronically controlled via electronic controllers that may be pre-programmed to administer a variety of contrast media either arterially or intravenously in conjunction with medical imaging procedures. In addition, such automated, powered dispensing devices may also be in communication with an EDA that is capable of detecting an extravasation event and logging such an event (along with the corresponding impedance profile generated by the EDA) in either an embedded electronic component or with the electronic controller of the dispensing device.
The data sets generated, processed, and/or stored by the dispensing device (and/or its electronic controller), the EDA, and/or other accessory devices used to dispense and/or monitor the dispensing of contrast media in a medical imaging suite are currently stored in a manner that they may be accessible by a technician servicing the device such that the technician may be able to determine various types of information, including but not limited to the usage statistics and or error codes of the device. The data sets may not be stored and/or organized in a manner that would allow the data included therein to be used effectively by clinical professionals and/or other professionals charged with managing a medical imaging practice. On the contrary, medical practice managers and medical staff have conventionally relied on manual record-keeping methods to record and/or log the usage of contrast media and/or other statistics related to the usage of a dispensing device and/or EDA within a medical imaging practice. Thus, clinicians must take valuable time to manually collect usage statistics that may already be stored (in a relatively inaccessible and/or unhelpful format) within the electronic components of the devices within the medical imaging suite. In addition, clinical practice managers must rearrange the raw data taken by clinicians in order to convert the dispensing device and/or EDA usage statistics into a format that may be useful, from a business perspective, for assessing the efficiency of the medical imaging practices. For example, the clinical practice manager is often tasked with identifying sources of waste and with predicting budgetary needs for a given time period (i.e., instances of pre-loaded, but unused contrast media, the excessive use of disposables, and/or excessive instances of extravasation events (which may signal that a dispensing device is malfunctioning and/or requires servicing or replacement)).
Thus, there exists a need for a device, system, method, and/or computer program product capable of collecting, storing, processing, and/or arranging data sets from a medical device, including, but not limited to, a dispensing device or other medical imaging accessory such that data within the data sets (i.e., usage data sets) may be effectively used by a clinical practice manager to monitor the usage of contrast media, dispensing device usage, EDA usage, the usage of various disposables, and other usage data related to the dispensing of contrast media within a medical imaging suite. Also, there exists a need for a device capable of communicating with a medical device, including, but not limited to, a dispensing device, and/or a method and corresponding computer program product capable of operating on an electronic controller of such device that may collect, arrange, process, store, and/or effectively present data related to the operation of dispensing devices in a medical imaging suite.